Two Israeli universities have ranked among the world’s top 100 higher education institutions in a coveted league table.
The Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem placed 71st and 89th, respectively, in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), which is compiled by ShanghaiRankings.
ARWU, first published in 2003, is an annual assessment of over 2500 universities, the best 1000 of which are ranked in its findings.
ARWU considers every university that counts any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medallists, highly cited researchers, or papers published in Nature or Science among its faculty.
In addition, universities with a significant number of papers indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the Web of Science are also included.
Universities are ranked by academic and research performance indicators, including awards won by alumni and papers published.
However, the last few years have seen a steady decline in the rankings for Israeli institutions.
Both the Weizmann Institute and the Technion achieved their highest scores of the decade in 2023, when they ranked 68th and 79th respectively, while the Hebrew University hit its peak in 2022, placing 77th.
This year, the Technion has dropped to a rank outside the top 100 and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev fell from within the top 400 – its peak this decade - to within the top 500.
However, Tel Aviv University achieved a spot in the top 200 for the first time since 2022 and Bar-Ilan University retained a position in the top 600, having fallen from the top 400 after 2022.
The University of Haifa retained its position in the top 700, similarly having fallen from the top 600 after 2022.
To get more Israel news, click here to sign up for our free Israel Briefing newsletter.